Proper Photoshop Setup - Color Space - Work Space - Export - Monitor Calibration

Question

Hi, I'm sitting here so frustrated, confused and depressed. I've tried for weeks to fix my workflow issues and everything I edit and export looks awful. I must start from square one as if I'm a beginner and get everything right. I will post what I have and hope someone can offer advice, video tutorials to fix things. Thank you to anyone or everyone who tries to help me.

SYSTEM

MAC Studio 2022 - M1 MAX - 32 GB Mem
Sonoma 14
Apple Studio Display 27" 5120-2880 - P3-600nts Preset, "However"
I calibrated my monitor w/Xrite Display Pro XL - Under "User" "StudioDisplay_24-06-24.icc"
Shooting with a Nikon Z9 always RAW

SOFTWARE

Have Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Beta, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, Premiere Rush, Bridge all on the machine and being used at various times. Have Lightroom Classic from a full ver. I purchased

So I open my NEF/RAW files and start working in Photoshop under "Camera Raw Preferences" it shows workspace as "StudioDisplay_24-06-24.icc"

I will then export with legacy or export as and convert to JPG, sRGB

When exporting a preview window will come up and the colors do not match my work, always more saturated.

I always get this message "Embedded Profile Mismatch" - I've tried all three options and still the end result is not a WYSIWYG.

In PROOFING I've tried to use that, it's set to Internet Standard RGB (sRGB) and again nothing matches. Things look washed out or to the other extreme very oversaturated.

I'm hoping a professional out there will notice what I have to do at first glance or send some questions to help me to find the issue. I'm just beside myself and have not slept for two days, up all night and it's way beyond me.

Thank you to Adobe and The Adobe Community of users for trying to help me in advance.

Best regards, Tony

davescm · Accepted Answer

Excellent advice from D Fosse.

Just some additional info which may help. This is my colour settings in Photoshop.

1. These are just the default settings applied if you create a new document, and don't over-ride the profile in the new document dialogue.
I set my RGB working space to Adobe RGB.

My CMYK working space default is set to FOGRA39 but, in reality, I rarely create anything directly in CMYK. If CMYK output is needed I convert at the final stage (which is normally InDesign for page assembly) and then convert to whatever CMYK profile is required by the printing press.

My default gray space is Gray Gamma 2.2 which has the same tonal response as Adobe RGB

2. Color Management Policies
These are very important and should always be set to Preserve Embedded Profiles. That way when a document with an embedded color profile is opened (including one from Lightroom) then that embedded profile is used and the colors of the document are maintained.

3. Profile Mismatches
I like to keep these warnings on, for my own information, but the first two can be safely turned off. I would advise keeping the third 'missing profiles' set to ask when opening. That way if you open a document without a profile, you can try and choose an appropriate document profile to use.

4. The conversion options and advanced controls, I leave at default.

As you can see - none of these are set to the monitor profile. That is loaded straight into the operating system by the calibration & profiling software.

Dave

D Fosse · Answer

Take a deep breath and go back to start. Throw away everything you've set up; it's all wrong. Reset everything to defaults.

You're overcomplicating this. It's really simple!

This is a standard profile conversion from the document profile to the monitor profile. That's all it is. But you need to keep these separate and don't get them mixed up. You need both profiles in their proper place.

The working space isn't important. The embedded document profile will always override your working space. The embedded document profile is all that matters.

The document profile needs to be a standard color space - sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto. The monitor profile has no business here!

The monitor profile should be made by a calibrator based on actual measurement. Here's the thing: your calibrator will set up the monitor profile in the operating system automatically. Don't do anything!

The monitor profile has one purpose: to accurately describe the monitor's behavior in its current state. Whenever the monitor's behavior changes for any reason, the profile is invalidated and you need to make a new one. The profile doesn't do anything - it's a map, and like any map it has to correspond to the actual terrain.

This basically works out of the box. Most people who get into trouble do so because they think they have to do something when they should just leave it alone.

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